Monday, April 27, 2009

What drives an addiction? Why do so many who give up alcohol, without addressing the underlying causes, develop addictions to other substances such as food, cigarettes or coffee? Gary Craig, founder of EFT says the driver for addictions is anxiety. Anxiety in this context encompasses fears, angers, guilt and shame. When these anxious feelings come up in our awareness, they are too painful to feel and we will do almost anything to quell and soothe them so we don't have to feel them.

Dr Joe Dispenza has very interesting ideas on addiction. Watch the following clip from What The Bleep Do We Know

In his book Healing the Shame that Binds You, John Bradshaw quotes Pia Mellody defining addiction as “any process used to avoid or take away intolerable reality”. He also goes on to say:

"Because it takes away intolerable pain, it becomes our highest priority. It does so much for us that it takes time and energy from the other aspects of our lives. To be shame-based is to be in intolerable pain. You need relief from this intolerable pain. You need something outside of you to take away your terrible feelings about yourself. You need something or someone to take away your inhuman loneliness. You need a mood-altering experience. There are myriad ways to mood-alter. Any way of mood-altering pain is potentially addictive. If it takes away your gnawing discomfort, it will be your highest priority and your most important relationship. Addictions can take many different forms; ingestive, eating, feelings/emotions, thoughts, compulsions and activities".

We can use EFT to dissolve the underlying causes and anxiety that drive our addictions.

In an earlier Tutorial I emphasized the importance of addressing specific events rather than global issues. This can often spell the difference between apparent failure and dramatic success. Even though the concept is easy to understand, some newcomers have difficulty putting it into practice.

Fortunately, there is a tool that greatly simplifies this important task. I call it the "Movie Technique" and it is demonstrated many times in the EFT – Beyond the Basics DVD set (previously called Steps Toward becoming the Ultimate Therapist).

Simply stated, if the client can make a mental movie of the event then it is automatically a specific event. A movie has a specific beginning and a specific end in time. It has a specific plot and specific characters. It has specific words & specific actions and generates specific feelings. In fact, if the client can't make a specific movie of their problem then the problem is too globally stated.

Here's an example. Suppose the client states their problem as,"My father always abused me." This is too global, of course, because that abuse is likely comprised of numerous specific instances (events) of abuse. If you ask the client to make a specific movie of this abuse, YOU FORCE THEM IN THE DIRECTION OF A SPECIFIC EVENT. Once in awhile the client will make a vague generalization of the issue instead of a specific movie. In such cases, you will need to guide them in the proper direction.

To give you some guidelines for stepping through this Movie Technique, I submit the following procedures that I have refined over time.....

First, ask the client, "If it was a movie, how long would it last?" Typically, they give me an answer that can be measured in minutes. This reflects, of course, a specific event. If they say, "several hours" or"several days," then you can usually assume they are still being too global.

Next, ask the client, "What would the title be?" This also tends to force specificity. In most cases, they will give you a specific title such as, "Fight in the Kitchen" or "My accident in Mom's car." If they give you a more general title, be sure to check out how specific they are being.

Next, ask them to run the movie in their mind and evaluate the intensity they are having NOW (as they imagine it) on a scale of 0-10. Alternatively, you can ask them to GUESS what their intensity would be IF they vividly imagined it. I usually find their guesses to be reasonably accurate AND guessing tends to save the clients some emotional pain.

Next, do several rounds of EFT on "this ____________ movie." At the end of each round check out the 0-10 intensity. Typically, it will come down to low numbers or to zero. You may be done with this specific movie at this stage but continue with the procedures below to thoroughly test the completeness of your work.

Next, ask them to go through the movie in their mind, starting with a low-intensity segment, BUT STOP WHENEVER THEY FEEL ANY INTENSITY. You will usually need to emphasize the importance of stopping because most clients are conditioned to believe that, in order to be rid of their problem, they must be brave and feel the pain while going through it. This is now ancient thinking. With EFT, these stopping points provide opportunities for tapping.

Next, use EFT on each stopping point until there is no more intensity on that segment (aspect) of the movie.

Have them run through the movie in their mind again, beginning to end, tapping on intense aspects as they come up, until the movie no longer has a charge on it.

Finally, when the intensity seems to be resolved, ask the client to go through the movie one last time, but exaggerate the sights, sounds, colors, etc and really TRY to get upset about it. If they find some more intensity, then keep repeating the steps above until it is gone. When they can no longer get upset, your work is done.

Properly done, this procedure should neatly remove a negative tree from the client's emotional forest. Then you can remove another tree...and then another...and then another...until 5 or 10 of them have been thoroughly uprooted. Since most of these trees have some commonality among them, there is usually a "generalization effect" that spreads throughout the whole forest, thereby toppling the rest of the trees. Thus, the client's problem of "My father always abused me," even though it may have several hundred specific events (trees) contributing to it, is often handled after 5 or 10 specific events have been neutralized.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Article by EFT Founder, Gary Craig
This tutorial should be read several times. It is that important.
Why? Because it addresses one of the most common errors made by newcomers to EFT. Once this is corrected, your results will have much greater consistency and many of your "difficult cases" will melt away quite easily. The problem is that most clients tend to see their issues through "global glasses." That is, they describe their issues using broad labels which, to them, seem very specific. Examples might be...

"I just don't feel very good about myself.""My father always abused me.""My mother never gave me the love I should have had.""I don't do very well with relationships.""I'm easily rejected."

Each of these...and countless more like them ... are like emotional forests made up of specific trees (negative events) which contribute to the overall problem. Using EFT on the globally stated problem is like trying to chop down an entire forest with one swing of the axe. If you address the global problem in this way, you will probably make some progress each time you swing. However, compared to the enormity of the forest, the progress is not likely to be noticed and thus the client will probably claim "no result"... or ... you might erroneously consider them hopelessly Psychologically Reversed ... or ... you might erroneously conclude that they are beset with energy toxins ... or ... you might give up and think EFT "doesn't work" or ... or ... or.
Instead of using EFT on an issue like, "Even though I'm easily rejected....." it is best to break down the globally stated problem into specific events such as....

"Even though my 3rd grade teacher embarrassed me in front of the class.....""Even though I felt so left out when my father didn't attend my high school graduation....""Even though my high school sweetheart said, 'I've grown tired of you'....""Even though I was sent to my room for the whole day on Thanksgiving at age 8....""Even though Mom told me 'you'll never get married unless you are thin like your sister'...."

These are the TRUE CONTRIBUTORS to the "I'm easily rejected" issue. They represent the FOUNDATION of the problem. The feeling of rejection is but the symptom of these underlying specific causes. Stated differently, if we didn't have these specific causes, how could we possibly feel rejection? The answer is 'we couldn't' because there would be no prior experience by which to measure a current "rejection."
So....we need to neutralize these causes by using EFT on individual trees. When we do, several benefits occur....

1. The client can easily recognize whenever EFT has eliminated a negative tree from their forest. They may start with an intensity of 7-10 for a given event and end with an intensity of 0. This is clearly noticeable and thus substantially improves the client's (and your) confidence in the method.
2. Each tree that is removed thins out the forest. This allows the client to walk through the forest with more ease instead of consistently bumping into yet another "rejection tree." The sting of rejection becomes less and less.
3. An important GENERALIZATION EFFECT occurs. The various"rejection trees" tend to have some common themes among them so that removing one tree has an effect on the remaining ones. Often, we can remove 5 or10 trees and then watch the whole forest fall.

I cannot overemphasize the importance of being specific. It often spells the different between dramatic success and apparent failure.

Friday, April 24, 2009

"I am willing to acknowledge … I am powerful! I am brilliant! I am the lover of my life! Of course you have power! It is an internal force contained within and moving throughout your entire being. You may not be able to see it, but it is there. Just like the toaster and the television, the only thing you need is to get plugged into your Source. There is a light within you that the world is waiting to see. This light, your light, shines so brightly that it has probably blinded you! Your vision has probably been blurred because of your own disbelief that someone like you could give so much to so many by simply being turned on about who you are and what you do. The light within you, which is powered by an invisible Source, will guide, protect and supply you with everything you need, at all times, under all circumstances.

One of the most self-loving things you can do is to let your power be seen. If you are not sure of what to do and how to do it, love the process of learning how to love and accept yourself more fully, more completely. Love the process of living. Love the ups and downs, the ins and outs. No one is expecting you to get it right the first time around, but if you set the intention to love yourself while you are learning to love, the Source of the light of love within you will give you all the power you need to keep trying until you master the art of loving.

The shift that you must make in order to use your power, to see your light and to secure the key that will open all the doors of life is to move your attention from the outside world to the inside of you. Know how to plug into your power. Learn what it is, how to keep it flowing and, most important, how to use it. Accept and acknowledge your own brilliance. Stop waiting for others to tell you how great you are! Believe it for yourself and about yourself.

Until today, you may have been experiencing darkness caused by a power outage. Just for today, turn on the light of your inner power of love!

Today I am devoted to allowing the power of love that I am to shine brilliantly"

Friday, April 17, 2009

What is a belief? a consistent feeling, thought or opinion that something is true. What's a limiting belief? I don't deserve, I'm not lovable, I'm not safe etc. There are more insidious limiting beliefs such as; I can't earn X amount of money unless I work 90 hours a week or I can't lose weight as my family genetics are "bad". Conflicting beliefs also exist such as passionately wanting something and working towards getting it, but then on the other hand, feeling guilty or non deserving and sabotaging your efforts in making that something a reality. This sets up a lot of internal conflict, which drains your life energy. Usually, many of our beliefs are unconscious. We know these beliefs exist because of the evidence; how they manifest in our lives and how their effects become our lives, they are the filter through which we perceive everything.

We can dissolve beliefs that do not serve us using EFT. Tools such as the personal peace procedure help us find beliefs (usually unconscious) that are limiting us and creating internal conflict (which usually result in procrastination and exhaustion).

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Life Energy resides within each individual. It is the term that I use to describe the innate healing power of the body, that which causes us to heal - to love. Although I believe I coined the term, the concept of Life Energy has been around for thousands of years and has been given many different names throughout the history of medicine. The Greeks called it thymos, Hippocrates called it vis medicatrix naturae, the healing power of nature, while Paracelsus wrote of it as Archaeus; the Chinese, Chi; the Egyptians, Ka; The Hindus, Prana, the Hawaiians, Mana. It is Spirit, it is Love. It evokes the true and only healing, that which occurs from within. This is what I mean by Life Energy. It is through this, and only this, that all healing takes place. Life Energy is intimately connected with health in the broadest sense, in that underneath the specific symptoms of any particular illness we will always find a diminution of Life Energy. Therefore, if we want to help overcome the root of the disorder, whether mental or physical, we have to raise the Life Energy of the patient. In other words, the only true healing comes from within, by raising the Life Energy. This principle is basic to my work. Life Energy flows throughout the body via the acupuncture meridians, each of which vitalizes certain organs, muscles, and tissues. As well, each meridian has an associated specific emotional attribute. And this is the link between mind and body, the basis for an understanding of psychosomatics: each organ and muscle has, as it were, a particular emotion. When the Life Energy is flowing freely throughout that particular meridian then the emotional attribute is positive, and the associated organs and muscles and tissues are healthy. But when there is trauma, of whatever nature, then the emotion turns negative and the Life Energy flow is impeded. If this remains uncorrected, disease results.Furthermore, many points on each meridian relate to a very specific psychological, and hence physiological, aspect of the particular emotional attribute of that meridian. Thus, by determining an imbalance at any of these points, a very precise physiological and psychological diagnosis can be made; including the precise nature of the particular traumatic event, present or past. Then very specific measures to correct the imbalance at the point may be instituted by a variety of modalities – nutritional supplementation, physical corrections, acupuncture, particular affirmations, musical motifs, songs, etc. So by being able to pinpoint the precise traumatic event, a choice can then be made to release the emotional blockage, enabling the Life Energy once more to flow freely.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

"Chronic Pain IS an emotional freedom technique. This is true of all chronic conditions.

I believe that chronic pain can emerge from years of hiding, holding back, caging, repressing our deepest self-expression. Chronic pain is the body’s expression of emotional and spiritual pain. Pain gets our attention! It is calling us to free our deep spirit.

We are only just learning how to respond to that call, and EFT is our key to the cage. This series of articles on calming and clearing chronic pain will describe some of the primary emotions and beliefs that hold the cage in place, and how we can use EFT to, literally, free our souls.

An Energy Psychology Definition of Chronic pain

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the source of acupuncture, the heart is called the 'King' of the organs. The Internal Medicine Classic states: 'The heart commands all of the organs and viscera, houses the spirit, and controls the emotions.' In Chinese, the word for 'heart' (hsin) is also used to denote 'mind'. When the Heart is strong and steady, it controls the emotions; when it is weak and wavering, the emotions rebel and prey upon the heart-mind, which then loses its command over the body.

What we call chronic pain is an interruption in a particularly sensitive person’s electrical system resulting from emotional trauma. Repeated experiences of stress or trauma can cause the energy system to become disrupted and the flow of life force restricted, limiting our access to our capacity to think and act and make choices. If we repress the emotions (sadness, anger, fear) that arise in response to our traumatic experiences, the electrical system disruption will eventually show up as pain and dis-ease in the body. Clearing the disruption can clear the pain and change thought.

A Psycho-Spiritual Definition of Chronic pain

Chronic pain is obstructed spiritual energy reflected as pain in the body. One could call it a sadness of the heart. Spirit is the best in us, our portal to all that is good and hopeful. Some of the essential qualities of spirit are love, expansiveness, generosity, creativity, imagination, possibility, openness, growth, flow and purpose.

A sensitive person can be extraordinarily in tune with her or his spiritual qualities, but may feel unable to fully express them in what appears to be a harsh, critical, wounding world. As a result of traumas, a sensitive person may develop chronic pain from an emotional response to a limiting belief around which their whole being seems to constrict: I can’t express what I really feel, I can’t be who I really am, I am not good enough. In order to matter or have significance in the world, in order to have inner peace, and in order to justify taking care of myself, I must remain ill. In a non-logical, unconscious intuitive way, this is a self-protective approach. Changing beliefs and choices can free the spirit and heal the body."

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Friday, April 10, 2009

This is an excerpt from the book Everything you Need to Know to Feel Go(o)d: The Science and Spirit of Bliss by Dr Candace Pert. It explains the term "your body is your subconscious/unconscious mind".

Emotion and Memory

Classically, the hippocampus is the structure in the brain associated with memory, because when you remove it surgically, a person will have deficits in memory. But contrary to what many neuroscientists believe, this doesn't necessarily prove that the hippocampus is the seat of memory.

In fact, recent findings support the theory that recall is stored throughout the body, not in the brain alone. Dr Eric R. Kandel, a neurobiologist at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, received a Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2000 for showing that memory resides at the level of the receptor.

The activity of cellular binding throughout the body can impact neuronal circuitry, influencing memory and thinking. When a receptor is flooded with a peptide or other ligand, the cell membrane is changed is such a way that the probability of an electrical impulse travelling across the membrane is affected. Remember, wherever there's a receptor, there's also a vibrating electrode or diode where circuits can change. This, in turn, affects the choice of neuronal circuitry that will be used, impacting brain activity.

These recent discoveries are important for appreciating how memories are stored not only in the brain, but in the body as well, where a psychosomatic network extends throughout all systems of the organism. A major storage area is in the receptors distributed near the spinal cord, between nerve and ganglia, and all the way out to the internal organs and the surface of the skin. This means that your memories are in your spinal cord, as well as throughout your bodymind.

Whether your memories are conscious or not is mediated by the molecules of emotion. They decide what becomes a thought rising to the surface, and what remains buried deeply in your body. What this means is that much of memory is emotion driven, not conscious, although it can sometimes be made conscious by intention. The emotions that you're able to experience can bring a recollection to the surface; if your feelings are suppressed, however, they can bury that same memory far below your awareness, where it can affect your perceptions, decisions, behaviour, and even health, all unconsciously.

Buried, painful emotions from the past make up what some psychologists and healers call a person's "core emotional trauma". The point of therapy- including bodywork, some kinds of chiropractic, and energy medicine- is to gently bring that wound to gradual awareness, so it can be re-experienced and understood. Only then is choice possible, a faculty of your frontal cortex, allowing you to reintegrate any disowned parts of yourself; let go of old traumatic patterns; and become healed, or whole.

Thursday, April 09, 2009

The Personal Peace Procedure that I'm about to unfold for you is not just a way to "feel a little more peaceful." Properly understood, this technique should be the healing centerpiece for every person on earth. Every physician, therapist, spiritual counselor and personal performance coach in the world should be using it as a leading tool for helping others (and themselves).

In essence, the Personal Peace Procedure involves making a list of every bothersome SPECIFIC EVENT in one's life and systematically EFT'ing their impacts out of existence. By diligently doing this we can pull out every negative tree from our emotional forests and thus eliminate major causes of our emotional and physical ailments. This, of course, propels each individual toward personal peace which, in turn, contributes mightily toward world peace.

Here are some uses....

1. As "homework" between sessions with a physician or therapist. This is certain to accelerate and deepen the healing process.

2. As a daily procedure to clear out a lifetime of accumulated emotional debris. This will enhance self-image, reduce self-doubt and provide a profound sense of freedom.

3. As a means to eliminate a major contributor (if not the sole cause) of a serious disease. Somewhere within one's specific events are those angers, fears and traumas that are manifesting as disease. By addressing them all, you will likely cover those responsible for the disease.

4. As a useful substitute for finding core issues. If you neutralize all the specific issues you will have automatically included core issues.

5. As a means for consistent relaxation.

6. To become an example to others as to what is possible.

This simple concept should shift the entire healing field. I can state it in a sentence...MOST OF OUR EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL PROBLEMS ARE CAUSED (OR CONTRIBUTED TO) BY OUR UNRESOLVED SPECIFIC EVENTS, THE VAST MAJORITY OF WHICH CAN BE EASILY HANDLED BY EFT.

Not bad for a mere engineer, eh? That sentence, if adopted by every healing practitioner and patient, would likely (1) dramatically increase our healing rates while (2) precipitously dropping our costs. Please note that this idea completely ignores chemical causes such as those propounded by the medical model. That's because I have repeatedly seen improvements in clients where drugs and other chemical solutions have failed miserably. This is not to say, however, that drugs, proper nutrition and the like don't have their place. Indeed they do. They can often be vital. In my experience, however, our unresolved specific events are nearer the foundational cause for illness than anything else. Thus they deserve our primary attention..

How obvious! Experienced EFT'ers are well aware of EFT's ability to cleanly wipe the negative specific events off of our mental walls. This is the area wherein our highest success ratios appear. To date, however, we have focused our efforts on those negative specific events that underlie a given ailment such as a phobia, headache or traumatic incident. This is good...very good...and we should continue doing so. On the other hand, why not use EFT on ALL the other specific events that are behind our more generalized (but VERY important) issues such as (to name a few)....

As you eliminate the emotional baggage from your specific events you will, of course, have less and less internal conflict for your system to deal with. Less internal conflict translates into a higher level of personal peace and less emotional and physical suffering. For many, this procedure will likely result in the complete cessation of lifelong issues that other methods have not touched. How's that for peace in a paragraph?

The same applies to physical ailments as well. I'm talking here about everything from headaches, breathing difficulties and digestive disorders to AIDS, MS and Cancer. It is becoming more widely accepted that our physical maladies are caused (or contributed to) by unresolved angers, traumas, guilt, grief and the like. I have had many discussions with physicians in recent years and more and more of them echo emotional strife as a major cause of serious diseases. Until now, however, there hasn't been an effective way to eliminate these health bandits. We can mask them with drugs, of course, but true cures have been hard to find. Fortunately, EFT and its many cousins now provide easy and elegant tools that will aid the serious health practitioner in killing the root causes of disease...instead of the patient.

What I share here is NOT a substitute for quality EFT training NOR is it a substitute for quality help from a masterful EFT practitioner. Rather, it is a tool that, properly applied, is capable of wide ranging relief (quality training or quality assistance will add to its effectiveness). Its simplicity and far reaching effectiveness give it candidacy as a mandatory method for anyone seeking help for even the most difficult of problems. . I know that's a bold statement but I've been at this for over a decade now and have seen so many impressive results over such a wide variety of issues that this statement is easy, if not essential, to make.

The method here is simple (I'm assuming you already know how to apply EFT).....

1. Make a list of every bothersome specific event you can remember. If you don't find at least 50 you are either going at this half-heartedly or you have been living on some other planet. Many people will find hundreds.

2. While making your list you may find that some events don't seem to cause you any current discomfort. That's OK. List them anyway. The mere fact that you remember them suggests a need for resolution.

3. Give each specific event a title....as though it was a mini-movie. Examples: Dad hit me in the kitchen--I stole Suzie's sandwich--I almost slipped and fell into the Grand Canyon--My third grade class ridiculed me when I gave that speech--Mom locked me in a closet for 2 days--Mrs. Adams told me I was stupid.

4. When the list is complete, pick out the biggest redwoods in your negative forest and apply EFT to each of them until you either laugh about it or "can't think about it any more." Be sure to notice any aspects that may come up and consider them separate trees in your negative forest. Apply EFT to them accordingly. Be sure to keep after each event until it is resolved.

If you cannot get a 0-10 intensity level on a particular movie then assume you are repressing it and apply 10 full rounds of EFT on it from every angle you can think of. This gives you a high possibility for resolving it.

After the big redwoods have been removed, go to the next biggest trees.

5. Do at least one movie (specific event) per day...preferably three...for 3 months. It only takes minutes per day. At this rate you will have resolved 90 to 270 specific events in 3 months. Then notice how your body feels better. Note, too, how your "threshold for getting upset" is much lower. Note how your relationships are better and how many of your therapy type issues just don't seem to be there any more. Revisit some of those specific events and notice how those previously intense incidences have faded into nothingness. Note any improvements in your blood pressure, pulse and breathing ability.

I ask you to consciously notice these things because, unless you do, the quality healing you will have undergone will seem so subtle that you may not notice it. You may even dismiss it saying, "Oh well, it was never much of a problem anyway." This happens repeatedly with EFT and thus I bring it to your awareness.

6. If you are taking medications, you may feel the need to discontinue them. Please do so ONLY under a qualified physicians advice.

It is my hope that the Personal Peace Procedure becomes a worldwide routine. A few minutes per day will make a monumental difference in school performance, relationships, health and our quality of life. But these are meaningless words unless others (you) put the idea into practice. I prefaced this article with a quote from my good friend, Howard Wight. I repeat it again below for emphasis...

"If you are ultimately going to do something important that will make a real difference...do it now"

Monday, April 06, 2009

This technique by EFT founder, Gary Craig, can help you find important emotional issues. This is because emotional issues often curtail our ability to breathe deeply. (Click on image for larger view)

1. Inhale 2 or 3 maximum deep breaths. Take your time and don't hyperventilate. This step will stretch out your lungs so that any EFT improvement in your breathing cannot be attributed to a normal "stretching effect" of your lungs.2. Once you have stretched your lungs as far as they will go then take another deep breath. This time assess the deepness of your breath on a 0-10 scale where 10 is your estimate of your maximum capacity. Numbers typically vary from 3 to 9 on this. The occasional person who rates their breath at a 10 (they are usually wrong) may find that, after EFT, they will go to a 12 or 15.3. Then do several rounds of EFT with Setup phrases such as "Even though I have constricted breathing...", "Even though I can only fill my lungs to an 8..." and so on. In between each round, ask the client to take another deep breath and assess the 0-10 deepness. In the vast majority of cases it will keep improving.4. During the process ask probing questions such as: "What does your constricted breath remind you of?", "When in your past did you feel constricted or smothered?", "If there was an emotional reason for your constricted breath, what might it be?" Often, they will give a big clue as to an important emotional issue.

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Please credit the author Noreen Barron if you wish to share my articles. Please do not amend my works without my explicit permission. All original information provided is solely the opinion of the author. By reading and/or using any of the content on this blog, you are agreeing to take full responsibility for your own health. Thank you.